Romance Guide

[jack1974]

AFAIK the only jealousy scene finished right now (more to come) is exactly the Loren / Karen one, and if you see it, it's quite awesome Was too fun when I was playtesting it and it happened!

[Aleema]

I am not having much luck with the boys overall! I haven't gotten that second heart expectations conversation with Rei, and I'm all the way in chapter two.

Hmm! You're right, there is a stipulation for Myrth's part of the conversation to wait until Chp 2. I think I did that to pace the romance, forgot to update the guide. Now I'm debating what to do! I think I will remove the time requirement, so it flows better. Knowing to click Myrth should be enough of a challenge.

I hope you have better luck with the boys!

[Elmsdor]

I enjoy Love Triangles. They emit a spark that both draws out fear...and excitement

In PS, it was possible to max everyone's affection but you can only choose 1 Lover. Which is normal. I assume it would be similar here in Loren too.

In the case of L/K, it results in an Affection destruction however. Is it possible to get a mid ranged response? Or even not have a total meltdown. I think it would be the height of romance, to maintain high relations with everyone, but be committed to one. So everyone keeps Forlorn memories, instead of never looking at you again.

Did that make any sense?

Cheers

[jack1974]

I'm not sure about that, I guess if I found someone was cheating on me, would be hard to still be "his / her friend" but I'll leave this to Aleema. I don't think makes much difference in term of gameplay, since is just a value to display, because when the jealousy scene happens forces you to decide between one of the two. So the other can have 0 hearts or 4, but won't be romanceable anymore.

[Elmsdor]

Scary analogy but true Jealousy is a mean streak in a love triangle, both the danger and charm.

In game mechanics, pre expansion, might not make a difference. How about post expansion where we may get personal quests? In PS, once you picked a lover, your character auto-rejects the advances of others, but the affection still remains at 100% This helps because it allowed the PC to continue doing their personal quests, where they maintained a close friendship but never an intimate one.

I love dramatic scenes, but I beg Aleema to not kill off their relationships!

Food for thought. And steak.

Cheers

[Aleema]

It's important to know that the hearts are purely for showing your romance progression. Not for general "how much I like you" (otherwise, Dora, Ramas, and Apolimesho would have them, too). The way the game is coded, it's vital that this number is reduced greatly before Chapter 4 if you are not selecting them to be your lover, because it is the person with the highest heart points that gets that spot. I'm going to do it either way, and I choose to notify the player that it happened, rather than them suddenly seeing 0 hearts in the summary window. The stat went to 0 because that's what needs to happen, sorry. It's not meant to represent killing your entire relationship with anyone, and it definitely does not do anything negative from there on. Loren and Karen are mostly upset with each other, not you. I'll consider reducing the hearts to 3 instead of 0.

The only middling option for that scene that would prevent either's feelings from being completely destroyed is to become super!elenor and make both Loren and Karen your submissive play things. But that essentially robs the 2 characters of any feelings, which they deserve. Also kinda stupid. So, not happening.

Other writers and I have a phrase we say whenever there is untouched romantic potential: "That's what fanfiction is for."

[Elmsdor]

That I can accept, but curiously, there are 3 missing spots in the affection table, by strange coincidence

Joking aside, I see now why there is an affection reduction, so the game will then delegate and draw on your potential partner. I had assumed you get to pick one, so long as you have the 5 Hearts. I noticed you can draw on events that go beyond 5 too. Such as Rei and Amukiki. Reducing it to 3 is drastic but seems believeable to me.

Hmm, I had assumed the affection meter was weighted towards the PC, aka jealousy and love as Jack earlier pointed. Assume we viewed the Jealousy event, and then proceeded to move to Chapter 4, Loren and Karen are still very jovial towards each other. It could be a facade however..

I think you summed it up, fanfiction and dreams :D I can live with that.

Alas alas

Cheers

[jack1974]

Ah yes, I think you got confused mainly because in Planet Stronghold there's my usual "relationship bar" which applies for all characters (even non-romanceable ones like Bellamy or Philipp) while in Loren there's a "hearts bar" only for the characters you can romance

[MadarFoxfire]

I feel bad seeing the affection meter go down, but it's deserved. What puts me off is the way the names under the heart symbol in the camp revert to ??? after they give up on you for good. Maybe you could just have the names and blank hearts. Or broken hearts.

Also, Saren's first Amukiki romance dialogue doesn't make the meter go up. Not a huge game-breaker, since you can get a lot of heart points out of the guy. Heck, I accidentally romanced him halfway to completion without actually trying to in my first Saren playthrough. But worth mentioning.

[Aleema]

I feel bad seeing the affection meter go down, but it's deserved. What puts me off is the way the names under the heart symbol in the camp revert to ??? after they give up on you for good. Maybe you could just have the names and blank hearts. Or broken hearts.

Well, that shouldn't happen. Me fix.

Also, Saren's first Amukiki romance dialogue doesn't make the meter go up. Not a huge game-breaker, since you can get a lot of heart points out of the guy. Heck, I accidentally romanced him halfway to completion without actually trying to in my first Saren playthrough. But worth mentioning.

"Oath II"? I see an affection increase at the end and I remember getting it at one point ... I've checked all the chats listed as flirts and I see affection calls. What dialogue are you specifically talking about? Also, you made me realize that Amukiki has an "extra" flirt dialogue that I forgot to add to the guide, thanks. Anyway, I hope romancing him that far seriously wasn't accidental, I don't want enraged fanboys claiming I forced them to be gay or anything ...